HISTORY OF THE WORLD:THE LAST FIVE HUNDRED YEARS. - Hardcover

From inside cover. The sixteenth century has often been seen as the age when the embryo of the modern world grew its distinctive features. The last great indigenous empires of China, the Middle East and Central America flourished while European explorers, traders and adventurers sowed the seeds of their future world domination. In Europe itself the nation states began to solidify, the control of the Catholic Church over learning was broken and new patterns of trade, agriculture and industry began to instigate far-reaching social changes that would lead to the Industrial Revolution. The history of the present century has seen the fulfillment of many of these trends and the sometimes violent emergence from them of the new configurations. The Third World has begun to wrench itself free from Western control, the politics of Europe have been transformed by the influence of ideologies and the success of supranational groupings, while stupendous technological developments, particularly in control over the Earth's environment, human health, communications and warfare have brought unprecedented opportunities and dangers to the future.